Plasma

Ever wanted to feel like you live on the moon? Or imagined your house at the bottom of the sea? The Winscape application from Rational Craft will turn two plasma TVs into virtual windows and give you a realistic interactive view of Earth from space, an underwater aquarium, or simply footage of the Golden Gate Bridge as you move around the room. Read More

The roll-out of 3D TV has begun in earnest and Samsung is hoping to capitalize on consumer interest by being first to market in several territories. The company’s 3D sets have been available in Korea for over a month, have recently appeared for sale in the U.S. and European markets, and yesterday Australian availability was announced for next week. So with consumers now actually able to grab the new tech off store shelves, we thought it was time to give a brief summary of what Samsung has on offer. Read More

The same process that illuminates big-screen plasma TV’s can now create ultra-clean fuels, according to a scientific report presented earlier this week. According to Prof. Albin Czernichowski from France’s University of Orleans, a device called a GlidArc reactor has successfully been used to create clean fuels from waste materials, utilizing electrically-charged clouds of gas called “plasmas.” One of the fuels is a form of diesel that reportedly releases ten times less air pollution than conventional diesel. Read More

If you’re a fan of movies like Poltergeist or Videodrome, in which people get really “immersed” in their television-viewing experiences, then you’ll probably like the latest news from Panasonic - it’s developed the world’s largest full-HD 3D plasma display TV. As presented at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the one-off behemoth sports a 152-inch, 4K x 2K (8.84 million pixel) screen, plus a host of other complicated-sounding technical marvels. Read More

A network of cameras deployed around the Arctic to understand the trigger mechanism for the beautiful light display called the aurora borealis – also known as the Northern Lights – has discovered that sometimes the vast curtains of aurora borealis collide, producing a stunning outburst. The reason no one on Earth has ever noticed these collisions before is that they occur on such a vast scale it takes a network of sensitive cameras spread across thousands of miles to get the whole picture. Read More

Low temperature plasma is currently used for the sterilization of surgical instruments. This is because plasma works at the atomic level and is able to reach all surfaces, even the interior of hollow needle ends. Its ability to disinfect is due to the generation of biologically active bactericidal agents, such as free radicals and UV light, which can be delivered to specific locations. Research into how and why these biologically active agents are generated has led to the construction of two prototype devices: one for the efficient disinfection of healthy skin in hospitals and public spaces where bacteria can pose a lethal threat; and another to treat infested chronic wounds. Read More

Plasmonics is a promising emerging technology that attempts to put together the best of two worlds — optics and electronics — to achieve faster computation and communication by making optical devices significantly smaller. In recent research, a team of European scientists has solved a long-standing problem in this field by sending signals over a long distance in a breakthrough that brings this technology much closer to mass production. Read More

We recently looked at a technique that could help extend Moore’s Law by using DNA molecules as scaffolding to pack more power and speed into computer chips. Now researchers from Purdue University and the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory are working to achieve the same result by adapting the same methods used in fusion-energy research to create extremely thin plasma beams for a new class of 'nanolithography'. Read More

Last week, as the world celebrated the first lunar landing, Apollo 11 astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins both called for NASA to make Mars its next goal. But the chemical propulsion system that took them to the moon would take six months, at least, to get a man to Mars and cost hundreds of billions of dollars. However, a new ion plasma rocket being developed by another former astronaut, Franklin Chang-Diaz, could potentially reach Mars in just 39 days using a fraction of the fuel. Read More

Think of a light bulb you can wrap around your finger or roll-out to create a display that would rival the Griswalds' efforts in Christmas Vacation. Light Tape is an extremely flexible lighting strip that has seemingly more applications than LED or neon lighting systems. Thinner than a credit card, and with a bend radius of 2mm, Light Tape can go just about anywhere – indoors and outdoors. It’s even wearable. Read More